


Come On, Come On, Come On

by heretothere



Category: Pentagon (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Slow Build, usual teenage avoidance of feelings and confrontation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-01-25 19:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12539456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heretothere/pseuds/heretothere
Summary: Changgu catches sight of Chungha and wants to make an impression; it doesn't quite go as he hopes. It really wouldn't be that bad, if her friend wasn't always glaring at him.Hyunggu is Chungha’s best friend, and he doesn’t like this new kid showing up at dance club. It really wouldn't be that much of a problem, if this guy wasn’t so pretty.A Pretty Pretty AU that's been in the works for months





	1. Let Me Hear You Say Yeah

**Author's Note:**

> not long after pretty pretty came out I had the though of 'what if instead of the competing love interest kino is just chunghas gay best friend looking out for her'  
> i was actually kinda surprised no one else did that first, and i think only one other fic on here rn follows the mv, and it started being uploaded recently
> 
> I have a lot of scenes started but . . . they're not connected very well so I still have a lot of work to do on this fic, but I'm determined to see it through
> 
> also major shoutout to one of my best friends who encouraged me to actually start writing this during the summer and is beta reading it for me!

In the side room attached to the practice space, Hyunggu spreads his arms out, showing off its new clean state. The extra mirrors are pushed into a corner (now horizontal and posing less of a threat of breaking from toppling over), there aren’t any empty bottles or chip bags, the protective bags that contain the school-owned competition clothes are hung up neatly, and the layer of dust that permeated parts of the room is gone. The small lounge/storage area is organized for the first time in who knows how long; Hyunggu certainly can’t remember anyone else doing a full sweep before in the two years he had been there. Chungha doesn’t give much of a reaction, but Hyunggu knows she’s impressed.  


  
“We did it this weekend. Hongseok was the only other one completely willing to clean, but we guilted Wooseok into coming too. Shinwon never showed - he left all the messages we sent him on read. Yuto had something else he had to do, but he never leaves any of his stuff here anyways,” he explains. Chungha drops down on the couch that used to be covered in clothes that had continued to be left by the members.  


  
“I forgot we had another couch,” she says.  


  
Hyunggu snorts, “Yeah, we got almost everything out of here. We put all of Shinwon’s stuff in a box; hopefully he’ll take it home at some point,” he kicks at a cardboard box that’s along the side of the couch.  


  
Chungha leans over the arm of the couch to glance at it before looking back up at him, “Trying to make a good impression in case the posters work and we get some new recruits?”  


  
Hyunggu shrugs, “That was one of the excuses we used to finally pick up, at least.”  


  
They leave the side room and come back to an unexpected sight. There’s another student in the practice room, holding Chungha’s headphones up to his ears. Hyunggu feels annoyance build in him immediately. He assumes it’s another weird guy in pursuit of Chungha, that’s all they ever are, and he isn’t interested in learning anything more about him than that. He hasn’t seen anyone do _this_ in particular before, so he’ll give him that, but it still looks creepy as fuck. He goes over and yanks on the cord, and the boy’s eyes open with shock, his round glasses visibly wobbling when he startles.  


  
“What are you doing?” he immediately grills.  


  
“I-uh,” the boy stutters, “her music was left on, and I hadn’t heard the song before, so I was curious, sorry, that’s kind of weird.” Hyunggu merely raises an eyebrow in response, and snatches the phone out of the boy’s hand when he picks it up. He gives him another once over, glancing at the nameplate that says ‘Yeo Changgu.’ Hyunggu won’t admit that one of the thoughts that came to his head was, “wow, it’s a shame he’s pretty.” There no need to admire some dude who decided it would be okay to walk into the practice room and touch Chungha’s phone. Changgu gives a quick, almost frantic, bow to each of them before he leaves. After he’s finally gone, Hyunggu turns to Chungha,  


  
“Have you seen _that_ guy before?” He hands her her phone and she bites the inside of her mouth as if in thought.  


  
“Hmm, today actually, I was late this morning and he was one of the other students getting scolded. I actually caught him staring when we were holding our bags up.”  


  
Hyunggu tsks, looking towards the door again with narrowed eyes.  


  
=  


  
The next day, during one of their breaks, Changgu comes back from the bathroom to see his group of friends surrounding the bulletin board outside their classroom. He leans between them to get a look himself. There’s only a couple of posters, all of them of clubs looking to recruit members. He scans over the English club one before he continues to the next one which is overflowing with how many words are written on it. He feels his heart rate pick up as he starts to read through it. The dance club. He has no doubt that Chungha is a part of it. With that, he has an excuse to potentially see her again, and to give a better impression, hopefully.  


  
At the end of the school day, Changgu goes down to the practice room again, one of the posters in his hands. He peeks through the window at the small group of boys standing together and laughing inside, and tries to garner all of his confidence before he opens the door. However, Chungha suddenly appears, just arriving as well. He startles; she just looks at him. He really wants to say something like, “You look really nice today,” or even something like, “How are you?” which would be the more normal, probably preferable, option, but he loses the chance because the magenta-haired boy from yesterday opens the door, obviously noticing that people were standing outside. He smiles to Chungha, but when his eyes turn to Changgu his mouth flattens out; he says,  


  
“You again?”  


  
Changgu, still unable to speak, turns the paper so the words face outward.  


  
“You came . . . to join the club?” his face transforms into one of surprise. He spins and calls into the room, “Hey guys, someone new came!” and walks in with a lofty air. Chungha enters when Changgu doesn’t immediately, but he follows her, though with trepidation. The boys already present had moved to sit one of the couches (well, one’s sitting on the floor in front of the couch; it’s only so big). They’re all out of uniform and in hip street clothes, and even though they’re still at school, Changgu suddenly feels self-conscious in his beige slacks and jacket.  


  
“Alright,” the boy says, “show us what you got.” He’s jumped up on the other couch, sitting on top of the backrest with his feet on the actual seats, elbows on his knees, looking at Changgu expectantly. He’s grinning, but Changgu assumes it’s more mocking and sarcastic than anything. He doesn’t know, but this isn’t the normal format of the club; it’s usually much more casual, but for him this might as well be an audition. Chungha takes a seat next to Hyunggu, sending a questioning glance that he doesn’t return, but she sits on the couch more properly. She folds one leg over the other and leans back. She’s also grinning, but it’s more sincere. Though, that could just be him projecting; he can’t be certain. Too caught up in his nerves, he doesn’t notice the slightly confused looks the other boys are exchanging with each other (and trying to share with Hyunggu) as they look between him and the other boy. He sets his bag down by the mirror and takes a deep breath.  


  
=  


  
To keep it short, Changgu makes a fool of himself, dancing with ridiculous moves Hyunggu has never seen anyone even attempt, at least not so seriously. After the first few moments, Hongseok and Shinwon are nearly rolling in laughter on the small couch, Yuto is covering his face hiding his huge smile, and Wooseok eventually stands to try and copy him. Hyunggu’s eyes flicker down to Chungha, who’s also laughing, trying to contain her amusement behind her hand. He himself feels a weird combination of emotions, flitting between wanting to laugh with everyone else at Changgu’s ridiculous dancing, being annoyed that Changgu came back to the room in the first place, but also being bothered that he’s not getting the same obnoxious vibe that has come from so many dudes that want to get close to Chungha.  


  
After he finally slows to a stop, Changgu is a little sweaty, more from nervousness than actual exertion, huffing a little. The first thing he sees when he looks away from the mirror is Hyunggu’s face, which is twisted up in a way he’s only able to interpret as disgust. The others calm down from laughing. He all but scurries out of the room, leaving quickly without saying much else besides something like ‘sorry’ and giving a bow to each of them.  


  
“You have to give it to the guy, at least he has confidence,” Hongseok says while wiping the remnants of tears from his eyes.  


  
“That was funny,” Shinwon says, almost redundantly. “He seems interesting. We might have scared him away though; do you think he’ll come back?”  


  
“He’s just another dude trying to impress Chungha but failing miserably,” Hyunggu cuts in and rolls his eyes, jumping off the couch. He tries not to think about the flash of determination he saw in Changgu’s eyes or his soft voice or his cute face. Of course, the repression of this only morphs into frustration. While the others have started chatting about something else and stretching, he goes into the side room and picks up Shinwon’s box of clothes. He comes back in drops it on the owner’s lap before turning away,  


  
“Make sure you take this home; I’m going to the bathroom,” he says with clipped words and walks out.  


  
“What’s gotten into him?” Shinwon asks once he’s gone, looking up at Wooseok and Yuto who are leaning on the back of the couch. The two share a glance but stay silent.  


  
Hongseok purses his lips, “No idea.”  


  
Chungha turns away from the door - her eyes had followed Hyunggu out - but she also doesn’t say anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for clarification, Changgu doesn't know Hyunggu's name in this chapter, so I didn't use it in the parts that were centered on his perspective, but i did in the last part bc its centered on hg's perspective (also it would have required too many tacky epithet


	2. I’m Telling Myself To Snap Out Of It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Changgu decides to fight for his dignity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it's taken me so long to finally get around to uploading this next chapter. In my defense my beta reader was overwhelmed with school last semester, and she got around to editing like in late december, and well, there were some scenes I had a hard time trying to make not awkward and then we were back in school . . . and you know how it goes. Anyways, here's the next installment.

The next morning when he’s at his desk, Changgu finds the crumpled poster lodged in one of his books, obviously arriving there when he shoved it into his bookbag after running out yesterday. He unfolds the paper to look at it again, ready to wallow in self-pity for the second time in 24 hours. Hyojong leans over and throws an arm around his shoulders to see.

“Did you go yesterday?” he questions. Changgu gives a couple shallow nods, and the chatter from their friends behind them goes quiet to listen. “How’d it go?” he asks next, even though all of them can guess, just based on Changgu’s almost tangible mood drop

“Bad,” is all he says at first, thinking about that boy’s face of disgust. Suddenly his back and shoulders are being patted by many hands that trying to comfort (but, aren’t necessarily effective . . .). He leans back and groans, and goes ahead and tells them briefly about Chungha and how pretty she is, and about the boy with magenta hair that he has thus far had zero good interactions with.

“Who, Hyunggu?” Hyojong fills in.

“I don’t know his name,” Changgu looks back over at him.

“I vaguely met him before. I almost joined the dance club you know?”

“You dance?” 

“Yea.”

“Oh,” is all he can say before the door opens and the teacher enters. Yan An steps away from their desks to go to his own seat.   
Changgu can already hear Hwitaek clicking his pen obnoxiously. Jinho jostles him forcefully once more, saying something encouraging that Changgu doesn’t actually hear, since he’s still focused inward.

=

The next couple of days, Changgu seems to see Chungha everywhere; and he does his best to avoid being seen. If he sees her in the hallway, he’ll go back into the classroom and miss his chance to use the bathroom during the break period. Once, he literally backed out of the stairwell because he saw her and two other girls coming down. It’s kind of comical, in a cruel way. He sighs at himself every time, but he’s still too embarrassed to do anything to change.

One day at lunch recess, a little more than a week after facing the dance club, Changgu and his friends are standing under the awning beside one of the courtyards. Jinho leans over a little, as if he’s looking at someone walking down the stone path.

“Is that him?” he points subtly. Changgu turns from where he’s leaning against one of the column to see. Naturally, it’s Chungha and Hyunggu. They’re laughing, and then Hyunggu does an intense (read: unnecessary) spin, making Chungha laugh more. She hits him playfully and he throws an arm over her shoulder right as they’re passing by. They all watch as they go, but Changgu stares openly with a his gaze burning and his face hardening.

=

When he’s taking out his books the next morning, Changgu once again sees the folded up dance club poster in his bag (he’s in high school, did you actually expect him to clean his bookbag out?). He fires up internally again, both at his bad dancing and at Hyunggu’s hostility. When he takes a seat at his desk, all but slamming his books down, and his friends fall quiet. “I’m going to learn how to dance; I’m gonna go back there, regain my dignity, and hopefully, get the girl,” he says.

Hyojong hums, “Do you want me to show you the ropes?”

With that, later in the week, they spend an afternoon when they’re all free out on one of the tennis courts. Hwitaek, Jinho, and Yan An act more as support than anything: watching and giving commentary as Hyojong takes Changgu through different moves, and cheering when he actually manages to pick something up. Over the course of the next week and a half, Changgu practices whenever he can. He eats his lunch in 5 minutes then lets Hyojong give him pointers, stays after the school day is over and dances in the empty lobby, and starts paying more attention to rhythm and flow and the other dance buzzwords Hyojong has thrown at him.

=

The day of truth comes. Hyojong helps Changgu choose an outfit, finding a thick blue and white hoodie hung in the back of his closet. As Changgu flattens his hair in the mirror, Hyojong reaches out and pulls off his glasses.

“You’re not gonna look cool in these,” he says. Changgu merely sighs and goes in search of his contact box in the bathroom. Hwitaek is also in his room, looking at his posters. Hyojong had to loan some of his own clothes to him, since he doesn’t really own anything that would do (He would try to argue that he does, but Hyojong would always cut him off, “I’ve seen your closet, dude, you definitely do not”). Hyojong himself is wearing a white short sleeve shirt with a big turtleneck collar, his hair messier, bangs all across his forehead instead of parted. 

“Aren’t you gonna be cold? You didn’t bring a jacket or anything?” Changgu asks him.

Hyojong shrugs, “It’s called fashion, look it up.” When Changgu just raises an eyebrow, he says, “Beauty is pain.” Changgu just leaves it, deciding not to get drawn into this nonsense today. He has other things to worry about. 

They meet up with Jinho and Yan An in front of the school gate, both of whom look surprisingly fashionable; their whole group coincidentally color coordinated. When they strut in, the dance club falls silent, watching them enter. All the same people that were there when Changgu showed up a couple weeks ago are present. The first person who Changgu really focuses on is Hyunggu, who’s wearing a baggy black sweatshirt and blocky shoes, his magenta hair well combed. The other boy scans him up and down, and his face settles on one of annoyance. Changgu doesn’t back down from the glare, staring back with challenge. He barely pays any mind to Chungha, despite her being right next to the other boy, as well as looking pretty as ever. Changgu’s friends fill out the circle, and Hyojong steps in. He does some quick popping just to start it off. After he steps back, Hyunggu hops off the barrel he was sitting on, eyes trained on Changgu, lacking any humor. His friends are cheering. He shows off some fast footwork, and swipes his lip and winks at the end, both pointed to Changgu. The latter’s heart beats fast, captivated and nervous after that display.

When Changgu is encouraged into the center, he begins the set of moves he’s been practicing non-stop for the last three days. He’s so focused, he doesn’t see Chungha’s smile (but does catch Hyunggu’s face change slightly from that lofty look to one of surprise). Hyunggu’s friends are bopping along, apparently unaware the two were in a serious duel. At the end, he gets up in Hyunggu’s face, asking for another challenge. Hyunggu’s ready to give it to him, and he immediately re-enters. Four steps in, however, and he slips in the middle of a spin, falling downward. He looks at the floor as he picks himself up and steps back to his spot. Changgu comes in again, fired up with adrenaline, and does a spin himself, lands, and looks back at Hyunggu, stare even. Finally he turns to Chungha, who is still smiling at him, and he feels like he’s only seeing her just now. His insides elate, but it’s not quite what he expected to feel. He feels triumphant from the dancing, certainly, but suddenly the point of getting the girl doesn't seem as important. It’s probably because he knows that this is not all he’d have to do to win her heart, and so now he doesn’t know how to proceed. Either way, he just beat Hyunggu in a dance battle - he can figure feelings out a later.

Chungha jumps off the barrel she was sitting on, and holds out her hand. Changgu shakes it with a huge grin. He can hear Jinho and Hwitaek screeching behind him, echoing his own pride. He doesn’t catch the surprised look Shinwon and Hongseok share with each other, but he does notice Hyunggu’s head thrown back, panting and radiating annoyance. Only now, it doesn't seem so much directed toward Changgu now, but more at himself. When Chungha releases his hand, she looks around at everyone else,

“Who’s gonna follow, then?” she says, reinstating the circle, returning it to a fun gathering like it should be, rather than an arena for Hyunggu and Changgu’s unspoken feud.

The dance circle continues, and even Hwitaek and Jinho take a turn; Yan An stays back, merely clapping and smiling. When it comes to a natural end most everyone is in a good mood, except Hyunggu, who is smiling, but it’s obviously forced.

“Does anyone else want a towel?” he asks, trying to keep his voice light, but the question isn’t even completely out of his mouth before he retreats.

After wiping the sweat from under his sweatshirt and the back of his neck he throws the towel down rather forcefully into the corner. He wants to be mad about being shown up, but the embarrassment from messing up in the first place overrides any anger. He shouldn’t have risen so easily to the bait, when Changgu challenged him at the end of his turn; he got overconfident.   
For some reason, his thoughts shift to how Changgu hadn’t worn glasses to the dance off. ‘Could he even see?’ ‘Did he have contacts?’ are the unwelcomed concerns that come into Hyunggu’s head. Then were the thoughts about how good he had looked in the casual clothes, and how impressive his dancing had become. He groans in frustration, but while doing so, he doesn’t hear the door slide open.

“Are you okay?” Chungha asks. Hyunggu startles.

“Uh, yeah, great,” he says flatly.

“Don’t worry,” she says, lightly hitting his arm, “you didn’t embarrass yourself that bad.” She laughs, and he does too, though a bit subdued. “Anyways, while you’ve been in here moping, everyone else has been talking; we’re all gonna get barbeque together. You’re coming, right?” He simply nods, how would it look if he were the only one to not go? When they walk out of the side room, Hyunggu straightens up his back and tries to even out his features.

In the short time he was gone, everyone had clustered into groups. The boy that came to auditions last year (Hyojin? Hyejong? He can’t remember exactly) is talking to Wooseok, Hongseok is making conversation with two of the other boys that came with Changgu, and lastly Yuto and Shinwon are chatting with Changgu and the tall boy that didn’t take a turn dancing. Changgu has lost the self-confident air he had when they had entered, but he has a bright smile on his face. Hyunggu still feels conflicted when he looks at him, unable to figure out his feelings on this whole situation. Chungha calls out that they should go ahead and go out. For a moment he’s glad to be saved of having to try and join after everyone had grouped up, but he knows actual introductions will be in order soon (if they haven’t done that without him already, which would be even worse). 

Hyunggu generally is not a nervous guy, but this weird sudden rivalry with Changgu makes everything more complicated. His own friends have been spared from being a part of it, but he doesn’t know if Changgu’s friends have, so there’s the possibility that they could hate him because he hasn’t been particularly nice to their friend. When they get outside, he walks beside Chungha, who in turn falls into step with Shinwon, who’s still talking to Changgu and the boy who didn’t dance. He doesn’t contribute to the conversation at all and mostly just looks ahead, only sometimes glancing at whoever’s speaking. It’s incredibly awkward for him, but everyone else seems to be having a good time already. He can only hope his pride will be repaired enough to be able to reintegrate back into the group by the time they get to the restaurant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and with that, we're at the end of the mv interpretation part!


	3. I Won’t Rush You, There’s A Lot Of Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Changgu may be part of the dance club now, but becoming friends with Hyunggu proves to be a difficult task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, it's ya boy . . . .  
> I feel SO bad that it took more than half a year to finally get this up. Summer work and then this semester has been kicking my and my beta reader's ass, and I get constantly distracted by new ideas (which I would also like to post eventually . . . maybe . . .).  
> My beta reader isn't a fan that I write literally everything in present tense but . . . I'm kinda over-accustomed to it at this point and I feel like it be a pain to change it now.   
> I'm also still figuring out what I'm doing with perspective, so sorry about that in advance.

Luckily, it’s early enough in the afternoon that there’s plenty of space in the restaurant they go to. With all eleven of them, they take up two adjacent rectangular tables. Hyunggu and Chungha, being the ones that led them in, split and take the seats closest to the wall. Hyunggu usually prefers to sit in the middle of everyone, but today he’ll stay to the side to recover from being thrown off-kilter. While waiting for the first round of meat to come out, they go around and formally introduce themselves. Chungha looks at Hyunggu, as if expecting him to start, and Hongseok beside him does the same. The others follow suit, and normal Hyunggu would bask in the attention, but today it just makes annoyance and exhaustion thrum under his skin.

He sighs before starting, “I’m Kang Hyunggu. I’m kind of the president of the dance club, on the paperwork anyways.” He shrugs and motions for them to proceed going around. Hongseok goes next, followed by Yuto, Wooseok, and Hyojong (he knew he was close with the name). On the opposite side, starting from the far end are Changgu’s friends Jinho, Hwitaek, and Yan An, then it’s Changgu himself, then Shinwon, and Chungha finishes it off. They’re all in the same year. Changgu and his friends are all in one class. Within the dance group, Hyunggu only shares his class with Hongseok. Wooseok, Yuto, and Shinwon have theirs together, and Chungha is the only one from the club in her class.

The pork belly finally comes out, and they transition back to chatting in groups rather than all together.   
Hyunggu eats silently, sort of listening to whatever Hongseok is talking about with Yuto, but his eyes wander between the people he’s not familiar with, landing more often than not on Changgu.

Chungha isn’t sitting right next to Changgu, but she’s holding a quiet conversation with him, both leaning forward with their elbows on the table. Hyunggu can’t hear them over Wooseok and Shinwon talking and laughing too loudly. He doesn’t realize he’s staring at the other boy until Hongseok elbows him and says quietly, “Stop trying to light Changgu on fire with your mind.” Hyunggu startles and looks quickly down. He picks at his bowl of rice. He misses Changgu relax and send a quick nervous glance his way.

=

Having earned a place in the “dance club,” Changgu starts staying after school. His friends come too, but only sometimes. On the first afternoon following the dance battle, Wooseok tells them, “Yeah, we just kind of, like, hang out, and I mean we dance usually, but it’s not really anything serious.”   
“It used to be,” Hongseok adds on, “but since we’ve been doing it we haven’t competed or even taken dues.” This of course makes Changgu question his treatment when he came with the flier, but he doesn’t say anything, knowing what the reason probably is (Hyunggu trying to scare him off), and he doesn’t want to make the atmosphere awkward.

That aside, Changgu integrates into the group quite well. He can laugh loudly with Shinwon and Wooseok, speak calmly with Yuto, and do something in between with Hongseok. The other boys are quick to start throwing their arms over his shoulders and including him in inside jokes. It feels good when Chungha smiles at him when he enters the room, or when she asks about his classes.

His dancing also improves, thankfully. He’s still not awfully creative, but he can follow along when the others teach him the choreo to a recent pop song. It’s fun and easy and Changgu feels comfortable with making mistakes. Well, he does most of the time. Other times, Hyunggu watches him with a judging eye, and it sets him on edge.

There’s one afternoon that they dedicate to teaching Changgu the main points of Red Velvet songs. Changgu learns early on that Hyunggu is _very_ good at girl group dances (besides, of course, being very good in general) as he has both the technique and the rare ability to not just look silly when he over-exaggerates a move or a facial expression. Instead, he looks. . . _cute_ , for lack of a better word.

That afternoon is also the first day Changgu starts to see the rest of Hyunggu’s personality. When Wooseok and Hongseok try to follow along with Ice Cream Cake, Hyunggu starts to laugh while continuing to dance. His smile is easier than Changgu has seen it up until now, his eyes crinkling up. He tries to correct them on one move, and he playfully pushes Wooseok with another laugh when the taller boy only mockingly copies him. Changgu can easily see why Hyunggu is the club leader. He just . . . radiates care and charisma and charm. Their eyes meet for a moment and Hyunggu immediately looks away, smiling tightening and dimming. Changgu continues to watch the other boy as he runs a hand through his sweaty hair, and continues still when Hyunggu starts dancing again. Hyunggu doesn’t look at him the rest of the afternoon.

But even with club expanding and the new friendships developing, everything continues on not unlike how it was before. The dance club still meets almost every afternoon, Changgu still helps Yan An with his lit homework, and Hyunggu still glares at Changgu whenever he’s around.  
Hyunggu tries to avoid him at all costs, which isn’t really doable, since Changgu’s started joining them for every session, but he at least avoids talking to him directly or being alone with him. 

Hyunggu knows it’ll bite him in the ass later, but he just doesn’t have it in him to actively try and get buddy buddy with Changgu. He’s allowed to be immature sometimes, to dwell on his embarrassment and to shield his ego. He would probably even shut Changgu down if the other boy tried to be the one to bridge the gap. Really, he already has, what with all the glaring he seems to do at him.

Changgu, however, wants to be friends with Hyunggu _so bad_ , and Changgu is nothing if not tenacious. Despite Hyunggu’s apparent efforts, Changgu does still have to interact with him, and Hyunggu’s opinion of him matters; the rest of the dance club have accepted him, and their friend groups have essentially merged. He really wants to amend those first impressions, but Hyunggu isn’t making it easy.

The more Changgu stays after school, the more he sees the side of Hyunggu that Hyunggu won't even consider being with him. It’s the side that laughs easily, smiles a lot, and acknowledgecares about his friends. He tries not to get too discouraged when Hyunggu’s face turns blank when he looks at him.

=

The first hint of moving forward comes when Changgu slips on someone’s sweater that’s thrown on the ground. He falls to the floor with flailing limbs, landing on his back with glasses knocked off. He doesn’t move, just stares at the ceiling while the others stare at him. Eventually, he says, “Fuck”, his voice crisp and clear. Hyunggu barks out a laugh and muffled giggles and the others also crack up (Hongseok is the one who actually takes the initiative to offer his hand and get Changgu off the floor). Afterwards, Hyunggu avoids looking at Changgu again that session, but the tension in both his shoulders and in the room have lessened. Changgu guesses it’s a step up from the glaring in a way.

=

Unfortunately, the awkward tension doesn’t disappear with this singular event.

In the club, the rest of the members have proven to be great friends, but Changgu wants to be friends with _everyone_. He does what he can. He’s respectful and amicable (which he would be _anyways_ , thank you), and he’s attentive whenever someone is teaching him new choreography. Maybe he can gain respect through improvement or can find a way to relate with Hyunggu over his passion. Hyunggu’s outward hostility dims with time, having lost its purpose of scaring Changgu off or to shame him. Despite that, he still rarely directly addresses him. Changgu considers the option of confronting him and trying to come to some understanding, but honestly, Changgu would rather change schools before that. He supposes Hyunggu has his reasons. Changgu did embarrass him, and before that he elicited his wrath by listening to Chungha’s music- oh, how he regrets ever doing that in the first place. 

Hyunggu also gets along _great_ with Changgu’s friends. He and Jinho share similar interests and tastes in music, and Hwitaek adores how naturally cute he is. With Hyojong it’s not too surprising, as he’s the one that stays after school with the club the most after Changgu. Yan An is the only one he hasn’t made a connection with yet, but Yan An very rarely stays after, rarely stays after long, and _never_ takes part in the dancing. To be honest he seems more intimidated by him, but it’s unknown whether that’s because Yan An’s obviously the one that Changgu is the closest to or because of Yan An’s look of aloofness that comes with his lack of confidence in his foreign language ability. Changgu half wonders if it's some weird way to get back at him, Hyunggu making friend with his classmates but not with him, but Hyunggu seems more just plain uncomfortable around him, rather than smug.

=

It’s been just over two weeks since Changgu has joined them, and on this afternoon Chungha comes into the practice room in an obvious bad mood. Everybody falls silent when the she slams the door shut and throws herself onto one of the couches. Hyunggu immediately sidles up to her and quietly asks what’s wrong.   
She turns to adjust and lays the back of her head on Hyunggu’s thigh. Her eyes are closed. “Just some douchebag, again. It’s nothing really,” she says in a calm voice, but every other word is clipped.

Hyunggu nudges her upwards, leaning in, asking her to elaborate. She tells a story about a boy blocking her path while she was trying to get to class, who came up to her again when the final bell rang. Hyunggu’s eyes have narrowed and he runs a hand up and down her back in comfort. Changgu listens as Hyunggu asks if it’s that one guy in the class beside hers again, the one that kept bothering her before break. She nods.

The rest of the boys have averted their eyes but Changgu keeps watching from his spot on the floor. Internally, he’s cringing at his own actions again, even if they weren’t as aggressive as the guy she’s describing now. _Is this a common occurrence for Chungha?_

Hongseok speaks up after a moment, “What an ass, I can’t believe he did that again.”

“It wasn’t as bad as last time,” Chungha covers her face.

“That doesn’t make it okay,” Hyunggu grumbles.

“I know,” she says back.

“Do we need to intimidate him?” Wooseok asks. Chungha’s hands come down and she smiles at Wooseok, but doesn’t look up.

“I’ll just tell him off next time, then maybe we can try that.”

They fall silent again.

“I already had such a long day too,” she whines and leans on Hyunggu’s side. He brings his arm up around her shoulders. Changgu still watches them as the silence leaves as the other boys starting to talk again, albeit much quieter. Hyunggu looks up, and their eyes meet. Hyunggu holds eye contact with him for a few long seconds before looking away back at Chungha.


End file.
